Local stuff!

Spent the last few mornings strolling a few local sites, very little to suggest that spring was on it's way, on Monday (18th March) gave Climping a good search and produced very little, normally a good spot for Wheatear but none found today, several Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipit's in off and Skylark's singing gave some hope of something to be found, 12 Sanderling were probably the pick of the bunch. A quick check at Goring produced a female Stonechat, not seen one here all winter so maybe a migrant? 6 Siskin's were also found in a housing estate in Angmering whilst dropping Jo off to work, not sure what it is called but it's the new estate near Worthing Rugby club?

 

The following day at Shoreham and Widewater was equally disappointing, small numbers of Meadow Pipit's arriving again raised hopes of finding some grounded passerines, not helped with the gravel extraction work taking place at Shoreham Fort at the moment.

 



A better mornings birding was had at Brooklands Park on the 20th, the weather had a wintry feel about it and so did the birding! A large gathering of Black-headed Gulls amounted to 104 birds roosting on the green, 3 Redwings and a Brambling at the north end of the park were un-expected but welcome finds, 2 Little Grebes were extremley tame in the sluice channel, some good habitat here, just wonder how often it is watched especially early morning? Moving onto Widewater, 5 Teal were on the east lagoon aswell as 2 Redshank and a Little Egret, offshore a hours sea-watch produced my first Sandwich Tern's of the year, both singles heading east as were Brent Geese, 104 counted in 4 seperate flocks, also noted was a small passage east of Common and Black-headed Gulls whilst at least 3 Great-crested Grebes were offshore..alas..no Wheatears

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ringed Black-headed Gull R3

Danny 'the Pirate' was visiting from Cornwall (17th) as our respective partners were on a Hen weekend in Brighton! We headed out with Shoreham being the first destination, but the strong southerlies and heavy showers were too much for our little girls so retreated to Widewater where we fared better, feeding the gulls with yesterdays left overs! Amongst the gulls, I noticed the chap below fly in, I am sure I have recorded this gull before here before xmas and also on the Adur, but never got a conclusive reading of the birds rings...any info on this bird would be greatly appreciated! I am sure Mr Fairbank will have seen this bird locally!

 

Black-headed Gull R3 at Widewater

 





2013 - Week 11 - Round-up

Birding time was very limited this week due to the dusting of snow which grinded Sussex to a halt in the early part of the week and my children and I fakking victim to one of the many bugs that are doing the rounds at the moment! Despite this, a large cold weather movement on the 11th, resulted in many Redwing and Fieldfare observed moving purposely west, a quick visit to Goring seafront (13th)recorded my first butterfly of 2013 in the form of a Small Tortoiseshell but although the sun was out, felt far too cold for butterflies! 6 adult Mediterranean Gull's were roosting in a nearby field. Hopefully some kind of normality will restore itself in week 12!

I also received an e-mail this week about the colour-ringed Waxwing I reported at Lewes on Boxing Day. Tony Cross from the mid-wales ringing group explained that the same bird had been photographed a lot further south on the 9th March...In Geneva, Switzerland...check out his blog to see his account of this bird...needless to say they are very pleased with the recovery!

http://midwalesringers.blogspot.com



2013 - Week 10 - Round Up

The dull cold weather finally gave way to some spring-like conditions with settled milder weather earlier in the week,  to dull, damp but still mild conditions towards the end of the week. Not a lot of birding done this week to be honest, the 5th saw us heading out and about around Shoreham and Widewater but very little seen here although a Peregrine was displaying around the Southwich power station, at Arundel, small signs of spring arriving with a pair of Peregrines displaying over the reserve and the Mute Swans prospecting nest sites..lots of gulls around at the moment and many Black-headed Gulls already in full summer plumage! A fantastic pair of Bullfinch's were showing well in the car park at Arundel WWT, on the 8th March, 3 Slavonian Grebes were seen from the shelter at Shoreham...in the murk but sea conditions were favourable, several Red-breasted Mergansers and a pair of Common Scoter offshore here aswell

 

 



 



2013 - Week 9 - Round Up

This week continued with pretty bleak conditions, with mainly low cloud and dull conditions with a biting north-east wind! This did not help the photography but with some hard work, some good birds were seen this week especially in West Sussex.

As previously reported, 2 Tundra Bean Geese were to be found in the Arun Valley, mainly viewed from the Black Rabbit pub (last seen on Saturday 2nd March) hanging out with Greylag Geese, good numbers of Red Kite seem to be moving around at the moment with 2 different birds seen at Bury Hill on the 27th Feb and a single over Graffham on the 28th

 

Red Kite - Graffham - 28th February

 

A visit to a couple of sites inland produced a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker which was pretty vocal but did not show well for the camera and finally managed to track down a Dartford Warbler and some Sussex Stonechat's this week and was nice to hear the Woodlark's defying the cold conditions and singing well

 

As I said, not a week for photography..hopefully it will brighten up next week!!



Distant Bean Geese at Arundel

After seeing reports of 2 Bean Geese seen this weekend at Arundel WWT, I thought there would be a good chance of seeing them in the Arun Valley today, a good vantage point is up at Burpham Church and as the birds have been observed associating with Greylag Geese and roosting in the WWT itself. In murky conditions, I found the geese flock miles off but just making out the 2 Bean Geese! Not the views you want, but confirmation that they are still here and at least viewable from here if nowhere else! I drove around to the Black Rabbit pub and was going to attempt to try and see them from here but plenty of roadworks etc going on so decided to move inland where a singing Woodlark showed well with another bird further in the distance! The paths have really dried out here since my last visit, although my daughter Robyn found one of the few puddles to fall in which meant a hasty retreat and not much else was seen or heard!!
There has been some debate about the Bean Geese at Arundel, with the general concensus that they are the 'Tundra' race by observers who had better views than I had!

A quick check at Patching Pond produced a second returning Great-crested Grebe so the pair is again re-united, and a drake Pochard, a bird I have not seen yet on this pond in my short time in checking it out...I'm hoping for something good here one day, looks good for Little Bittern or Night Heron!!

Red-necked Grebe - Worthing

I received a txt from Dave Smith informing me that he had just seen a Red-necked Grebe offshore at Marine Gardens, I arrived within half an hour and checked out the sea's further west as the bird had drifted this way..conditions for sea-watching were good with relatively flat sea and good light, although it was biting cold. I soon found large parties of Red-breasted Mergansers offshore and several loose flocks of Great-crested Grebes, all drifting west pretty quick. I phoned Garry who was on his way down and told him to look off Goring as I presumed the bird had probably drifted that far. Upon further scanning, there was good parties of auks moving through, mainly Razorbills, several Kittiwakes and Red-throated Diver. I noticed that the Great-crested Grebes had started to drift slowly east and I then picked out a single bird half-way out..a Red-necked Grebe offering good scope views and was quite happy fishing on the sea in front of me. I phoned Garry and he joined me to also get onto the bird..a good bird to get locally! there was upto 3 birds offshore here last year for a while so hopefully this one will hang around too..thanks goes out to Dave for the info